Review: Play by Kylie Scott

Play (Stage Dive #2)By Kylie ScottPublished April 1st, 2014St. Martin’s Griffin304 pagesContemporary RomanceSource: received from St. Martin’s Griffin in exchange for an unbiased review (Thank You!!)

About the book:

Kylie Scott returns with the highly anticipated follow-up to international bestseller LICK.

Mal Ericson, drummer for the world famous rock band Stage Dive, needs to clean up his image fast—at least for a little while. Having a good girl on his arm should do the job just fine. Mal doesn’t plan on this temporary fix becoming permanent, but he didn’t count on finding the one right girl.

Anne Rollins never thought she’d ever meet the rock god who plastered her teenage bedroom walls—especially not under these circumstances. Anne has money problems. Big ones. But being paid to play the pretend girlfriend to a wild life-of-the-party drummer couldn’t end well. No matter how hot he is. Or could it?

Oh my freakin’ adorable dialogue! This is my first book by Kylie Scott and I’m in total book love with her writing. Do you like funny dialogue? Do you mind when the heroine gets sidetracked on her inner ramblings?

Case in point:

[note note_color=”#D3BDAF”]Reece’s brows drew tight together. “Even for a hook-up you can do a hell of a lot better.

“What?” Not only was it an extraordinarily rude thing to say, it wasn’t even remotely true.

“Shit, Reece, how can you even… ” I stared at Mal, frowned and cocked my head. So much skin. I looked and looked until I hit the dusting of dark blonde hair leading down from his belly button, heading straight for No-Anne Land. He had a treasure trail. A map to hidden delights. The donut box trembled in my hands.

“There’s the crazy eyes,” said Mal in a low, rough voice. “Looks like my pumpkin is ready for round six of the sexin’.”

Oh. Crap He didn’t.

[/note]

Let me take you back to the beginning of the story. Anne has just had one of her worst days. She came home from work to find half her apartment empty. Her roommate has skipped out on two months rent and left Anne in a lurch. To cheer up Anne, Lauren, Anne’s neighbor and friend, invites Anne to a party at Lauren’s old roommate’s new condo. This old roommate just so happens to share this condo with her new husband, a member of one of the hottest rock bands in the country, Stage Dive (see book one, Lick). Anne gets there, feels a bit out of place and goes out on to the terrace. She runs into the band’s drummer, Malcolm Ericson, sitting alone in a corner nursing a six pack of beer.

Mal lived on Anne’s bedroom walls growing up so she’s nothing short of tongue tied when she comes face to face with the man on the posters. Turns out, Mal is curious about Anne and wants to know why she is so sad. You see, Mal has his own problems and he’s practicing avoidance by trying to fix Anne and her problems. How does he plan to fix Anne’s problems? Hysterically, that’s how!

Ha! Did you really think I was going to give the plot away? You’re so silly!

Mal is a hoot a of character to read! Because he has major troubles weighing on his mind, he’s a wee bit on the manic side. Always known to be the life of the party, he is hysterically funny when he’s “on” and performing for his friends, family, or just about anyone. He’s the clown, the life of the party, and sometimes the mediator. But get him alone and in his thoughts, he really is sensitive. But he’s not without his flaws and he’s got a biggie…. he sucks as a boyfriend (IMHO). I’m pretty sure it was said in the book that he’s never had a girlfriend and hoo boy! Does it ever show! Watch that man get himself in trouble!

Anne is, for the most part, a smart heroine who doesn’t take crap from anyone, including Mal. That’s just who she’s had to be. The only area Anne is weak about is boys…. but aren’t we all?

I really enjoyed the fast pacing of the story and the consistent up and downs of the plot (the flow). The supporting characters came in and out the story appropriately, as well. And even though *gasp* I’ve read this book first, I can tell it’s not necessarily a bad thing. I may have missed out on some of the nuances and followup from the previous story but THIS story remained the same.

I think what made this story really work for me was the use of humor with the imagery of it. I think Ms. Scott is a fantastic writer. Anne and Mal jumping on Anne’s bed, Mal crunching his head into the ceiling and the inevitable cracking and breaking of the bed – I saw it all in my head! This story really ended up being a feast for my eyes and my funny bone. Now I need to see if Lick is as funny as Play … and then read Lead and then read Deep …

About the author:

Kylie is a long time fan of romance, rock music, and B-grade horror films. Based in Queensland, Australia with her two children and one delightful husband, she reads, writes and never dithers around on the internet.

About Kristin

Kristin has to ensure she gets her minimal requirement of "happily ever after" books in between those books that contain cliffhangers and never-ending story arcs. It's for her family's sake. When not reading, she's homeshooling her 10-year old son, watching cartoons on TV, or taking a nap.

4 responses to “Review: Play by Kylie Scott”

Actually, it can annoy me when they get sidetracked with inner ramblings if it’s done too often. This sounds like a lot of fun though. Is it bad I want to see Mal get himself in trouble? I’m pretty sure I already have the 1st book, so yay me!Christy recently posted…Ruining Mr. Perfect by Marie Harte

YOU would have the first book 😉 And actually, Mal needs to get in trouble!!! How he gets in trouble, he’ll only learn by getting smacked on the head!! Trust me, you’ll LOVE Mal!! I really wanted to quote the entire book for my review but then, yeah… that would be bad 😉

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